Michael Anthony Dorris (January 30, 1945 – April 10, 1997) was an American novelist and scholar who was the first Chair of the Native American Studies program at Dartmouth College. His works include the novel A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987) and the memoir The Broken Cord (1989).
The Broken Cord, which won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction, was about dealing with his adopted son, who had fetal alcohol syndrome, and the widespread damage among children born with this problem. The work helped provoke Congress to approve legislation to warn of the dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy.
He was married to author Louise Erdrich, and the two had a family of six children. They collaborated in some of their writing. They separated in 1995, and then divorced in 1996. He killed himself in 1997 while police were investigating allegations that he had sexually abused his daughters.
Biography
Early life
Michael Dorris was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Mary Besy (née Burkhardt) and Jim Dorris. The senior Dorris was later reported as mixed race, with a Native American father. His father died before Dorris was born, reportedly by suicide during WWII. In an article published in New York Magazine two months after Dorris's death, a reporter quoted the Modoc tribal historian as saying, "Dorris was probably the descendant of a white man named Dorris whom records show befriended the Modocs on the West Coast just before and after the Modoc War of 1873. Even so, there is no record of a Dorris having been enrolled as an Indian citizen on the Klamath rolls." The Washington Post reported: "Dorris' father's mother, who was white, became pregnant by her Indian boyfriend, but, the times being what they were, she could not marry him. She later married a white man named Dorris."
Dorris was raised as an only child by his mother, who became a secretary for the Democratic Party. He did his field work in Alaska, studying the effects of offshore drilling on the Native Alaskan communities.
At a time of rising Native American activism, in 1972, Dorris helped form Dartmouth College's Native American studies department, and served as its first chair. He was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 1977 for his work in Anthropology & Cultural Studies. In 1980, he took his three adopted children with him from Cornish, New Hampshire to New Zealand, where he had arranged a year's sabbatical.
Erdrich dedicated her novels The Beet Queen (1986), (1988), and The Bingo Palace to Dorris. The family lived in Cornish, New Hampshire.
While teaching at Dartmouth, Dorris frequently mentored other students. He was part of the successful effort to eliminate the college's Indian mascot.
After returning to the United States in 1981, he married Louise Erdrich, Dorris, Erdrich, and their three daughters moved to Kalispell, Montana, allegedly because of death threats Sava had made towards them. In conversations with friends, Dorris maintained his innocence and his lack of faith that the legal system would exonerate him without his "demolishing" his wife and children in a "vicious" court trial.
Reception
Dorris was the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books in the genres of fiction, memoirs and essays, and non-fiction.
His Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987) has been named among the "finest literary debuts of the late 20th century."
His memoir The Broken Cord is credited with bringing "international attention to the problem of fetal alcohol syndrome" ("FAS"). The book won a number of awards, including the Christopher Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction. It is credited with inspiring Congressional legislation on FAS.
When he and Erdrich co-wrote The Crown of Columbus (the only fiction they officially share credit for, although they frequently stated that they collaborated on other works), each individually wrote a preliminary draft of each section. Within the novel, various characters are writing collaborators. The work has been characterized as an autobiographical representation of the creative "pleasure and problems" that Dorris and Erdrich shared.
In Cloud Chamber (1997), Dorris continued the story of the families introduced in Yellow Raft in Blue Water, telling "the hard story of hard people living difficult lives with much courage". It was described as written in "evocative prose".
Dorris published three works for young adults during his lifetime; The Window was published posthumously. These novels also explore his themes of identity and sibling rivalry.